Sherpa Alliance

How serious are you ,individually and collectively, about being fully in the driving seat of your organizational agility, translating strategy and execution into traction?

• It’s not something which you can just dabble with every once in a while (Dabbler, Obsessive, Hacker or Master?) - it is something we must master over time by plodding along, loving the plateau and waging war against the anti-mastery mentality of dabblers, obsessives and hackers, from whom we will be under constant assault.  The assault starts with that dabbler part of each of us whispering, "maybe now is not a good time" - there is never a good time to start - to begin a mastery journey, there is no time like the present.
• It’s not something which you can see any less a part of the DNA of your business and psyche as Executives than financial accounting (The Financial Accounting vs "Strategic Accounting" of Your Business) - it is something which is equally transaction intensive, requiring a commensurate commitment of time, energy, attention, paperwork, software, systems and, above all else, discipline.  Depending upon the starting point, it may take you upto 3 annual cycles before this becomes natrural and an integral part of your way of working.  At the other end of that journey you will be in the minority of businesses which have mastered it as opposed to the majority (including your competitors) which have not.
• It’s not something which you can tackle with conventional forecasting, planning and analysis methods or traditional "Strategic Planning & Implementation" approaches (The Traffic of Dynamic Complexity) or a management model which is out-of-date in other ways (Is Your Management Model Out of Date?) - it is something which requires management innovation of unconventional approaches which reflect unconventional times and the new-normal of a dynamic journey on a shifting landscape.  Its about "tackling" this not "tickling" it with conventional approaches which reflect the old-normal.

If you are not up for these challenges, then I suggest you aren’t serious, which is OK.  Its your busines, or your role in your business, and its your choice.  Let’s not beat about the bush and let’s call it what it is.  At least you are making this choice from a place of consciousness and awareness and you are not in denial of the risks and potential consequences.  You are placing your bet.  All of business is about placing bets and your are placing yours.  I respect that.

If you are up these challenges above, then here is the next level of things-to-think-about to understand how serious you really are:

• Think about starting not as an event (having an offisite day, for instance) but about spooling up a process, progressively, persistently and patiently, and adopting a new discipline for agility (Where Does Agility Come From?) .
• Think about whether you want to participate or facilitate, because you can’t do both - an external facilitator can ask questions you can’t ask, run exercises you can’t run and create accountability you can’t create, at least not as easily and fully.
• Think about who the key players are who you want enrolled in the process, so you can engage everyone in one big conversation/dialog (recognizing that there will be sub-group elements to it) about the whole problem and solution, the parts and the whole, in a whole-brained way (Do You Have a Tiger Team? )
• Think about the commensurate level of time/money you need to invest in this to "tackle" it not "tickle" it, over what period of time and optimized (phased, structured and streamlined) for best affordability, self-funding potential and ultimate payback  - think about the short-term avoidable-costs and opportunity-costs (Growing Cash-Flow by Reducing Wheel$pin and Increasing Tra¢tion, for cents on the dollar) and potential medium-term and long-term financial consequences if you don’t (read the Eastern Airlines story in Divergence & Convergence).
• Think about your willingness to not be the answer-man/woman, to exhibit the vulnerability of not-knowing the answers to the questions the process will pose, to take a back-seat in letting the process unfold, and to be confronting reality and allowing the need for deep dialog to surface - a wonderful leadership opportunity of learning and growth for all and, not least of all, for you - provided you are serious about the humility which that takes.

If you are serious, then take the first step.  Maybe you have an existing event-oriented approach which needs to be shifted up a gear into an ongoing process?  Maybe you have a good process/dialog around some parts of the problem/solution but you are not adequately addressing the whole?  Maybe you are starting from scratch?  Whatever the first or next step is, take it.  There is no time like the present - the net positive, immediate improvement of your cash-flow depends upon it as well as the providence for the growth of future cash-flows.  As Goethe said, "Concerning all acts of initaitive and creation, there is only one elementary truth - that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too".